PCA&D welcomes 16 new faculty for Fall 2024

Mark Campbell

A warm PCA&D welcome to the 16 new faculty members who join us for the Fall 2024 semester: 

MARK CAMPBELL (Adjunct, Foundation):  Mark Campbell is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily in three-dimensional media and photography. For over 25 years his works have referenced urban and landscape theory, with contents and forms derived from the built environment and the interface of constructed and natural systems. He has received numerous grants and awards and has an extensive history of exhibitions and performances in museums, galleries and academic institutions. Highlights include The Philadelphia Museum of Art; The San Jose Museum of Art; The Delaware Art Museum; The National Museum of Art, Beijing, China; The Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia; The Fabric Workshop And Museum; the DUMBO Center for the Arts in Brooklyn, NY; and Locks Gallery in Philadelphia. 

Campbell was a founding member of Bricolage, an experimental performance collective based in Philadelphia and New York. From 1999 to 2023 he was an associate professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. UArts academic appointments include Dean, College of Art, Media and Design; Director, School of Art; and Co-chair Foundation program. Prior to UArts, Mark taught in the Visual Studies Program at Drexel University. He earned his BFA from The University of the Arts and his MFA from Mills College; you can see his work at markcampbellartist.com.

BONNIE MAE CARROW (Adjunct, Fine Art): Bonnie Mae Carrow is an artist and educator whose multidisciplinary practice is

Bonnie Mae Carrow

rooted in contemporary craft, sculpture, and installation. By recreating or manipulating household objects and architectural elements, she examines the emotional, social, and political implications of our embodied relationship with domestic space.

She earned an MFA from University of South Florida and BFA from Millersville University of Pennsylvania. She previously held positions as the Director of Exhibitions and Director of Education respectively at the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, PA. She has been awarded residencies at the Icelandic Textile Center and the Hotel Pupik Artist Residency. Her work has been included in multiple publications including XinSai Magazine, Vox Populi’s Juried Publication, and Creative Quarterly.

Daniel Fishel

DANIEL FISHEL (Adjunct, Illustration): Daniel Fishel is an illustrator, animator, and educator based in Philadelphia. They have worked with clients such as Apple, Target, Netflix, Audible, Penguin Random House, Macmillan Publishing, Scholastic, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, NBC News, and NPR. In 2015 and 2016, Fishel was recognized as one of Print Magazine’s New Visual Artists 15 Under 30 and Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 in the Art/Style category. Additionally, Fishel’s work has been featured in award annuals, including the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, and 3×3 Magazine. They earned a BFA in Illustration from The University of the Arts and an MFA in Illustration as a Visual Essay from The School of Visual Arts. You can see more of their work at o-fishel.com/.

Jimmy Giegerich

JIMMY GIEGERICH (Adjunct, Illustration): Jimmy Giegerich is an illustrator living and working in Baltimore, MD.  He’s the creator of the Executioner and Friend cartoon and comics, as well as the Fight Frogs and Death Knight comic series.  He runs on heavy metal, horror movies, and slime, and earned his degree in 2008 from Maryland Institute College of Art. You can see more of Giegerich’s work at jgillustration.com. 

ANDREW HAENER (Adjunct, Illustration): Andrew Haener (he/him) is an illustrator making lively and energetic work, bustling with powerful geometry, mysticism, and personality. He champions American working-class life and aims to forge inter-community dialogues through storytelling and familiar characters. By incorporating a straightforward, symbol-driven visual language, his images strive to communicate as clearly as possible with carefully selected color palettes, rich organic textures, and an unwavering sense of humor.

Andrew Haener

His work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and others, and has been awarded by The Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, The Association of Illustrators, 3×3 International, and more. He holds an MFA in Illustration Practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art as well as a BFA in Graphic Design from Missouri State University. He currently lives in Baltimore, MD. You can follow him on social media at @andrewhaener, and see more of his work at andrewhaener.com. 

ZAK KELLER (Adjunct, Live Experience Design & Production):  Zachary (Zak) Keller has been working ​in show business for the past 27 years. In that time, he’s been a Technical Designer, Art Director, Set Designer, Audio Engineer, Production Manager, Video Designer, Carpenter, Prop Master, or Charge Artist for hundreds of productions; covering theater, opera, musicals, dance, episodic television, touring concerts, music festivals, awards shows, top-secret product launches, fashion, trade shows, and professional wrestling. Keller is driven to be the person who figures out how to make it happen on time, and just barely under budget. Keller has previously served on the

Zak Keller

faculties of the School of Theatre on Penn State’s University Park Campus, and the University of Northern Colorado’s School of Theatre Arts and Dance.

Today, Keller is the Senior Project Manager at Atomic Design, based in Lititz, PA. Over the last 12 years with Atomic, he has led extremely diverse projects: awards shows, concerts, tours, music festivals, professional wrestling, art installations, corporate events, pop-up stores, and tiny homes. From Taylor Swift to Stephen Hawking, he has been privileged to set the stage for the virtuosi of our time. His job description may vary wildly based on a project’s needs, but the basic components are: 25% Technical Designer, 25% Art Director, 25% Roadie, 25% Workflow Wrangler, 25% person you talk to when your printer settings are wrong.

ANITA MEENAN (Adjunct, Liberal Arts): Anita Logue Meenan is a Certified Public Accountant who owns and operates a tax and accounting practice in Rising Sun, MD. She has worked in the venture capital business and she has also held various finance positions where she helped to build start-up companies. Her passion is finance, both

Anita Meenan

personal and corporate. She graduated from Millersville University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and an accounting concentration.

When she’s not working you can find her hanging with her family at her log cabin in the woods, hiking or biking somewhere along the Susquehanna River, or perhaps practicing yoga. 

LEXI K. NILSON (Adjunct, Illustration): Lexi K. Nilson is an award-winning illustrator, writer, designer, educator, and storyteller who explores magic in mundane moments to create soft spaces to land. With a keen sense for sophisticated whimsy, her work reflects the wonder and joy found amidst the small moments of the everyday.

Lexi K. Nilson

Lexi primarily creates work for surface design, editorials, + kids books and amidst entrepreneurial endeavors and private commissioners, her select clients include: The Washington Post, Hardie Grant UK, and Deseret Magazine. Her work has been featured in 3×3 Magazine, and received the Communication Arts Award of Excellence in 2023. Lexi published her first book, Jane Was Here: An Illustrated Guide to Jane Austen’s England in 2020 with Hardie Grant UK, which has since been translated to French. She is represented by Wernick & Pratt Literary Agency and is working to write and illustrate children’s books. Her education includes a BFA in Illustration from Brigham Young University, and an MFA in Illustration Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art. You can see her work on Instagram (@lexiknilson), on her website (lexiknilson.com) and on Etsy at LexiKStudio. 

ASAVARI THATTE PENDHARKAR (Chair, Design Thinking, and Assistant Professor): Dr. Asavari Thatte Pendharkar is an educator, researcher, designer, and entrepreneur. As an academician and designer/entrepreneur, she finds the synergistic relationship between

Dr. Asavari Thatte Pendharkar

Design Thinking theory and practice exciting. Having closely experienced multiple cultures and geographies as a designer and transnational scholar, she strongly believes in creating design that responds to cultures and places. As an educator, her focus with Design Thinking is to encourage students to examine cultural, behavioral, and spatial contexts relevant to design. Her research in art education, design, and transnational scholarship has been published in peer-reviewed journals and edited books. Her research and writing examine design in curricular and cultural contexts. Her education includes a BFA in Applied Art from Mumbai University; an MA in Graphic Design from Savannah College of Art and Design; and a Ph.D. in Art Education with a minor in Curriculum and Instruction from The Pennsylvania State University. 

Jezabeth Roca González

JEZABETH ROCA GONZÁLEZ (Adjunct, Photography & Video): Jezabeth Roca Gonzàlez is a multidisciplinary maker and educator working in collaboration with their family. Through multimedia installations Jezabeth makes use of video, soil, and plants to explore the intimacy of place and the ever-shifting, migratory movement of people between the U.S. and Puerto Rico–known colloquially as El Va y Ven. By implementing autobiographical methods they explore the banality of everyday life. Invested in generating visual records of their own family dynamics, which include themes of generational difference, altered landscape, and the cultures and aesthetics of care. Combining and contrasting the autobiographical with the speculative, Jezabeth constructs video vignettes and builds multiple, parallel realms that

question the manner in which colonial legacies shape the land, their own cuirness as an abstraction, and the duality inherent in everyday life. Roca González is an Instructor of Record for the Film & Video Department at The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). They have also been awarded numerous residencies, including the University of the Arts iLAB residency, the Banff Centre for the Arts, Bemis Centre for Contemporary Arts, and Feminist Art Collective Artscape. Their work has been screened or exhibited internationally including at Taller

Mathew Samuel

Comunidad La Goyco (San Juan), Temple Contemporary (Philadelphia), as part of  Video Caribx  at Documenta Fifteen (Kassel) Germany, and Hessel Museum of Art (New York) CCS Bard College.

MATHEW SAMUEL (Adjunct, Foundation): Mathew Samuel has been a professor for the past 23 years at numerous schools across the East Coast. A practicing artist, a partner in a design studio called San 7 Studios, Samuel is now a partner in an art studio named CarSan Collective. He has exhibited work at various shows and galleries in Baltimore, Miami, Atlanta, and regionally in Pennsylvania, and some of his work has been published in books, including “Masters of Typography and Mixed Media.” His artwork focuses on Indian culture, cross-cultural contradictions and, recently, a series called “Moments.”

Amanda Schaedler

AMANDA SCHAEDLER (Adjunct, Liberal Arts): Schaedler holds a B.A. in English from Millersville University and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Wilkes University, where she was mentored by author and editor-in-chief at Etruscan Press Robert Mooney. Schaedler taught within the School District of Lancaster for eight years and at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology for one year, wrote features for Fly After 5 Magazine and was a correspondent for LNP/LancasterOnline for five years. Schaedler is a manuscript reader for the James Jones Literary Society and a volunteer for the political organization Sign4ERA.

KATHERINE SUCHAN (Adjunct, Foundation): Katharine Suchan is a Philadelphia-based artist whose work seeks to embody fantastical experiences by observing her immediate

Katherine Suchan

environment. These manifestations appear through paintings, drawings, and installations. She received her MFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in May 2024 and her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2020. Her work has been shown in Kansas City, New York, Minnesota, Rome, and Philadelphia and featured in New American Paintings Issue No. 160. Recent shows include her solo show The Light That Does Not Touch Us at Temple Contemporary (Philadelphia, PA) as well as group shows Commemorations (DRWCFlag Exhibition) at Spruce Street Harbor Park (Philadelphia, PA), ROMA at Stella Elkins (Philadelphia, PA), and poxoes at Gallery of Art (Rome, Italy).

SK Watson

SK WATSON (Assistant Professor, Live Experience Design & Production): SK Watson is a lighting designer for live entertainment. Their work has varied throughout opera, ballet, fashion, theater, music festivals, movies, and children’s theater for the past 20 years regionally and in New York City. Previously, Watson has taught at CUNY City College of Technology in the Entertainment Technology Department teaching lighting technology, design, and electricity.  Watson graduated from Centre College with their BA in Dramatic Arts and continued their education at Ohio University for their MFA in Lighting Design.

Lauren Whearty

LAUREN WHEARTY (Adjunct, Foundation): Lauren Whearty is an artist, educator, and curator living and working in Philadelphia, PA. She received her MFA from The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH), and her BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University (Philadelphia, PA) and has been a Co-Director at Ortega y Gasset Projects, an artist-run curatorial collective and non-profit in Brooklyn, NY, since 2017. Whearty has attended residencies such as Yale’s Summer School of Art through the Ellen Battel Stoeckel Fellowship, The Vermont Studio Center, Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat through the Ora Lerman Trust, and the Golden Foundation Artist Residency. She has recently received grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and Joseph Roberts Foundation. Some places where her work has been exhibited include The Delaware Contemporary (Wilmington, DE); The State Museum of PA (Harrisburg, PA); The Woodmere Museum, Gross McCleaf Gallery, Vox Populi, Bridgette Mayer

Yunhao Zhang

Gallery, and Center for Emerging Visual Artists, all in Philadelphia; Satellite Contemporary (Las Vegas); Monaco (St. Louis, MO), The Painting Center (New York, NY), Ortega y Gasset Projects, 11 Newel, Underdonk, and Deanna Evans Projects, all in Brooklyn; and Sam and Adele Golden Gallery (New Berlin, NY).

YUNHAO ZHANG (Adjunct, Animation & Game Art): Yunhao Zhang is a storyboard artist, 3D generalist, and animation director based in Los Angeles. He was born and raised in a beautiful small city in China with only two million population. In 2011, not knowing much about the actual animation industry at all, he decided to dedicate myself to the career of animation and storytelling, blindly. “It has been a great fortune for me to have worked on some of the most amazing projects, and I hope to keep creating stories that inspire us all.”